This is the most exciting part of any fiesta in the Philippines---street foods! Reminds me of hot bibingka, puto-bumbong, palitaw and hot cocoa being sold near the church. Street food was the motivating factor why my cousins and I wanted to go to church during fiesta when we were kids! :D

And what I miss the most when I was a kid after mass in Subic, Luna, was the tinudok-tudok. They're like rice balls wrapped with caramelized sugar skewered by a bbbq stick. I hardly see any in Metro Manila, but quite common in the provinces.

You mean the one right there on the grill, Sidney? I once made a remark to a vendor, "Ala ka, sunog na young mais mo!" But as it turns out, they deliberately burn a cob so the scent of it would entice the people to buy them. Cassava is always delish :)

The one on the top pic is "bukayo" which I have been craving for months now. It's grated coconut sweetened with panocha or brown sugar. It makes a great pandesal filling :)

I know Rhoda once said there's plenty of them in Dagupan that you can buy bottled and all. But my sister promised to make some from scratch. It has been months since then and still no bukayo here at home ... hehehe.

Yes, Rhoda, I agree with you. Those sidewalk vendors should be commended for helping keep their premises clean and litter free. Unfortunately, here in Manila, the vendors sometimes do not care at all :( Dumi sa paligid nila.

The one you refer to as "tinudok-tudok", Eric, happens to be one of my favorite native delicacies too. But we call it "bicho-bicho" here in Dagupan. Plenty of them in the market - especially during early mornings. Yum.. i'm craving right now... hehehe.

As for bucayo - I can buy them even in our neighborhood sari sari store. My mom used to cook the most heavenly bukayo. She would add milk to it, thus making it creamy and just - heavenly.:)

What is the street food in the last photograph? Looks like ice lolly in an elongated plastic wrapper and it reminds me of what we used to have back in junior schools. Vendors would use thin and elongated plastics and pour syrups into them. Later on, they'd freeze it in the freezer. Is it something like that?

How nice to look at you food photos! Very natural unlike those sophisticated food photos on glossy magazines. Well, my favorite is the grilled corn. Although we have lots of American corn here in California during summer, those "Pinoy inihaw na mais" made me like to dig my teeth on them. The natural corn grill is very interesting. Filipinos are very resourceful. Maybe you should export it here.

I've been craving for some for quite some time now, though I still didn't buy any when I ran into this vendor during the fiesta. I guess, at the final moment, my subconscious steered me away from it. I'm trying to avoid the sweets lately, you see :)

Thank you for getting into the scene of things, Eric! Having a camera around these crowded places is no mean feat!

I had the great experience of being able to have traveled most parts of the Philippines. One of my favorite pastime in-between my so-called jobs in my provincial "sorties" is going around plazas and marketplaces and learning about their "street foods."

Among the others, there is this boiled duck egg in a batter and deep fried. They call it kwek-kwek.

On nutart's kwek-kwek experience-- there used to be a kwek-kwek vendor near my office in Makati. At coffee breaks, you would see yuppies devour orange-colored balls on the sidewalk. It's best eaten with lots of vinegar.

the street food i like most are squidballs! although these days i like to buy them in malls since it's a bit scary nowadays.. the media has turned me against street food! :) but i like the ice candy photo.. mmmm...

Happy New Year Eric! I have not been visiting blogs for a while due to school works (lots of them) and other activities, though I still blog :) -- one of our topic now in Educ tech is blogging. I wrote possibilities of using blogs for school (actually many are using them already) but I did not share my blog with my classmates since it is more or the personal stuff than on school related topics.

The only thing with having cameras that need the usual film load was that it can be heavy on the pocket :-). My traveling days were pre-digital camera era. Unfortunately, my budget was only for documenting my work projects. The digital camera is talagang God's gift to avid photographers. I have given the joy of photography over to my husband who takes the digi-cam always with him.

That's true, Bernadette ... digital camera is such a blessing to photography enthusiasts. I don't think I would have returned photography with as much passion had it not been for the advent of digital cameras.

Life in Manila as observed by a former New Yorker who with a laptop and camera has reinvented himself as a storyteller. Winner of the PHILIPPINE BLOG AWARDS: Best Photo Blog in 2007 and three Best Single Post awards in 2008.